10 things we learned from Big Ten Media Days

Not only did new Nebraska head coach Scott Frost lead off his inaugural appearance at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago as the first coach to speak at the event, he was literally one of the first topics of discussion.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany kicked off the session, and after an opening statement, the very first question he fielded was about Frost and what his impact could be on the Huskers and the Big Ten as a whole.

“I think the fact that Scott played at Nebraska and has had an amazing series of successes as a young coach really breathes a lot of enthusiasm into the fan base, proven young coach, familiar with their history, and I think that probably has inspired their fan base now,” Delany said.

“Their fan base is not hard to inspire. I think they've had 240 sell-outs going back over many years. I think Scott's success as a player, as an assistant coach and as a head coach has captured the imagination, passion, and enthusiasm of the fan base.

Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck referenced Frost in his main podium interview. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald welcomed him to the league in his opening statement.

Those were the first of what should be many other times Frost’s name comes up over the next couple of days, as his presence has turned the Huskers from somewhat of a Big Ten afterthought to the forefront of the discussion.

Frost couldn’t have done a much better job of embracing his ties to Nebraska’s rich football tradition and his relationship with legendary former coach Tom Osborne while still creating strong optimism for the program’s future.

He insisted that many things the Huskers did under Osborne when he was a player were still very applicable in today’s game, and moves like the hiring of Dave Ellis as Director of Performance Nutrition, bringing Ron Brown back as Director of Player Development, and maintaining at least weekly talks with Osborne all reflect that approach.

That said, Frost also seems to have a firm sense of what it’s going to take for NU to regain its past position in the modern era of college football.

That balance might be the perfect formula for how Nebraska will return to a championship level, and something that Frost feels wasn’t done nearly well enough in recent years.

“We’re not going to run from the past,” Frost said. “From afar I got the impression for quite a few years, at least recently, that Nebraska has abandoned the past and turned its back on the past.”

From a football standpoint, Brown’s hiring made perfect sense.

An assistant at Nebraska for 25 years who helped coach Frost in the mid-1990s, Brown represents a perfect link to NU’s glory years and boasts a wealth of coaching knowledge.

The issue is that Brown also brings some controversy over some public comments he made in 2012 at an Omaha City Council meeting in regards to his opposition of a proposal to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Frost said he’s seen Brown do “unbelievable things” to help players as a coach, and they want “to get the best people we can back in the building.” Frost also acknowledged that he felt there was a clear understanding of the expectations of everyone on his staff and within the program.

“Certainly there are ideas that a lot of people that work for me have that not everyone agrees with, and I understand that,” Frost said. “There will never exist in my program or our program any kind of discriminatory talk or anything like that.

“We’re going to have a program that’s open and comfortable for everybody that’s involved in it. But we’re going to build the program with the best people we can possibly get involved.”

Frost and his staff kept things as close to the vest as possible this spring when talking about the competition at quarterback, and there didn’t seem to be any clear answer on the situation following the Red-White Spring Game.

That battle between redshirt freshman Tristan Gebbia and true freshman Adrian Martinez will officially resume when the Huskers return to work for the start of fall camp on next week, and there appears to be a deadline in place for a starter to be named.

Frost said he ideally would want to have the depth chart set by a week before NU’s season opener vs. Akron on Sept. 1. If it becomes clear that one QB has separated from the other before that point, they won’t wait to declare a starter.

They also won’t allow the competition to drag into the first game week of the season.

“We’ll make the decision when it’s clear who the best guy is, and not before,” Frost said. “We won’t wait after it becomes clear. I’m excited to see those guys compete, and we’ve got a long way to go. But we’ve got good talent.”

Some of the best news for Nebraska on Monday was that Frost had no new injuries or roster attrition to report with the start of fall camp looming.

Frost also gave an update on the status of junior running back Tre Bryant, who has been out since the Week 2 of last season with a lingering knee injury. Frost said he went back and watched film of the first two games of 2017 and thought Bryant “jumped off the screen immediately.”

“He’s progressing really well, and we’re excited about the possibility if he is back,” Frost said. “We’re going to have to be cautious with him and make sure we’re not overloading him, but he’s a special player.”

Frost also said there were no updates on the statuses of incoming freshmen Dominick Watt and Maurice Washington. He said it was still a work in progress to get them enrolled and on campus, but he was confident both players would be Huskers when all was said and done.

“There are two or three kids we’re still waiting right up until the end with, but we’re really optimistic about those two,” Frost said. “Hopefully they’ll be in our program. We think they’re both special players who can help us.”

There’s a quite a bit of disparity in the projected Big Ten West Division standings this season, as most have Wisconsin once again as the clear and heavy favorites to return to Indianapolis for the conference title game.

It’s a fact that Frost himself is willing to admit, but he fully plans on changing that narrative in a hurry.

What bothers Frost the most is that Wisconsin and former head coach-turned athletic director Barry Alvarez (a former Husker) essentially took the blueprint of Nebraska’s program and instilled it in Madison with great success.

“Barry Alvarez is a Nebraska guy, and a lot of what Wisconsin is doing is the Nebraska model,” Frost said. “They’ve been out Nebraska-ing Nebraska, and we’re here to fix that.”

Frost explained that the key elements of getting Nebraska back to “Nebraska-ing” again went well beyond on-field X’s and O’s and would start primarily with developing the “big athletes” the Huskers used to have on both the offensive and defensive lines.

Frost again gushed praise for the work strength coach Zach Duval has done in just a short time in Lincoln. He also couldn’t say enough about the Ellis’ role with improving nutrition and how NU planned to utilize its impressive sports science program more than ever.

It’s a plan that certainly won’t happen overnight, but Frost gave fair warning to Wisconsin and the rest of the Big Ten that the Huskers would be a force to be reckoned with much sooner than later.

“We’ll see how this first year goes, but people better get us now, because we’re going to keep getting better,” Frost said.

Senior receiver Stanley Morgan Jr. is one of the louder and most enjoyable personalities on Nebraska’s roster, but for the most part over the past three years, he hasn’t allowed it show through the media.

Morgan found himself in new territory on Monday as one of NU’s three player representatives at Media Days, and it in a way symbolized the beginning of a new role as one of the top faces of the program.

The attention Morgan has already garnered with preseason accolades and NFL draft hype has put him in the national spotlight, and Morgan said he’s embracing it as best as he can.

“I had to come out of my shell this summer, and part of that was being more vocal,” Morgan said. “It’s not that big of a deal. I kind of like it. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

There was a point in recent years where it seemed that Osborne was getting further and further removed from Nebraska’s present and future by the year. That has definitely changed since Frost took over.

Frost said he and his former coach meet at least once a week in the football offices, and they occasionally talk even more when they fish or turkey hunt together.

Osborne’s name came up time and again as Frost fielded questions about returning Nebraska to power, many times from Frost completely unprompted.

It showed that not only has Osborne played a vital role in Frost’s development as a head coach, but he will also continue to serve as an invaluable resource as Frost takes on the daunting challenge of rebuilding his alma mater back to glory.

“Coach Osborne is my hero in this sport, in this business,” Frost said. “When people ask me about him, I always tell people that he was a Hall of Fame coach, but aside from that, he's probably the best man that I know. Because of who he was and how he ran our program, every single one of us would have run through a wall for him…

“Having that resource to be able to draw wisdom from is really invaluable to me. And I look forward to bouncing ideas off of him and getting advice from him wherever I can. Coach Osborne had the formula that Nebraska figured out.

“Some of the things he did to make the program arguably the best in the country can still work today. Nebraska has just gone away from them. We're going to adopt a lot of things again and do it in a modern way and do it in a way that recruits and kids are going to want to be a part of.”

The NCAA instated a new rule this offseason that, for once, was met with almost universal approval around the sport.

Players will now be allowed to play in up to four games before a decision must be made on their redshirt eligibility for that season, meaning true freshmen will now have the opportunity to get their feet wet in games before choosing to continue to play or preserve a year of eligibility.

Frost said he plans to take full advantage of the new rule not only to provide more depth and get in-game looks at his young players, but also to help freshmen make informed decisions in managing their eligibility clocks.

That means, in an ideal situation, every freshman will get the opportunity to see the field in a game in some form before deciding whether redshirt. Those appearances will generally come in home games due to the Big Ten travel roster restrictions.

“Any freshman or newcomer in the program that we think is ready to play, we’re going to play them,” Frost said. “We’re going to need the depth and the help this year. If they’re not obviously going to play and be used that year, then we’re going to try and space them out and use different kids in different periods in the season to try and help our depth on special teams.”

As he’s been since Central Florida was making its case for a shot at the College Football Playoff last season, Frost was again very vocal about his thoughts on whether the playoff field needed to expand from its current four-team format.

If he had it his way, Frost would push the number of playoff teams to eight, which would consist of the five power conference champions and three additional at-large bids.

“It’s hard to look at last year's college football season and not feel like an eight-team playoff isn't where we should go,” Frost said.

Frost’s plan included starting the playoff earlier in December, allowing the regular season schedule to remain the same while also ending the year with the national title game at the same time. He’d also see the semifinal round toned down a bit as to not make it into a full bowl game experience as it is in the current format.

“I don't think it takes away from the regular season and the importance of those games,” Frost said. “As great as the evolution of that playoff has been, I'm always going to be an advocate for eight teams.”